Possible Research Paper Topics

One possible topic I may write about is the Kony 2012 campaign that is seen all over the Internet lately. It is an attempt to stop Joseph Kony from abducting children and forcing them to serve as his children soldiers. Everyone is hoping on the band wagon and sharing the video introducing the campaign, but does everyone know what they’re supporting? I’m not saying people should not support the cause, but I think they need to know more about what they are helping with. Most people have heard the 2005 version story of Joseph Kony, but a lot can change in 7 years.

 

http://www.kony2012.com/

 

Another possible topic is mental illnesses in American children. It seems like more children are diagnosed with a mental illness than not. 2011 data shows that over 46% of children were diagnosed with some sort of mental illness at some point in their life. These numbers were not this high a few decades ago, but why? Do we have new technology and better educated doctors to diagnose more cases, or are there a number of misdiagnosed children? 9 percent of these kids are said to have ADHD. Is there really that many out there? Or is it possible that kids just being kids is now seen as a mental illness?

 

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/statistics/1ANYDIS_CHILD.shtml

 

A third possibility is the issue of single-gender schooling. Do boys-only and girls-only schools make a difference in the education of the kids attending? If so, why and how does it make a difference? Studies have shown that girls do better in single gender schools than boys. This may be because of the lack of distraction of the opposite sex in the school setting. The number of single gender schools has been gradually decreasing since the 1970s, but if they’re beneficial, why not try to popularize them again?

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/mar/18/secondary-schools-girls-gcse-results

 

 

 

Research Paper Topics

One topic I am considering writing about is Japan’s dolphin hunting culture. The Japanese fail to see that what they are doing is animal abuse and in return they are unknowingly poisoning their people, including children, with mercury. Studies show that dolphin meat has an extremely high amount of mercury in it and the Japanese are murdering around 23,000 dolphins each year and selling their meat in disguise of whale meat. This video shows how Japanese people are being poisoned and they have no clue about it. In the documentary “The Cove”, it is evident that the Japanese do not have a concrete reason as to why they do this. They go out of their way to hide everything and keep public away from their hidden cove. I believe the Japanese should pay for the harm they do and should be shut down immediately.

http://www.thecovemovie.com/

Another potential topic for my research paper is job outsourcing. Everyday, American jobs are being replaced by people in other countries. In places such as India, the same working laws we have here in the United States are not enforced therefore causing many of these people to be over worked and be paid a lot less than in America. Meanwhile, Americans are losing their jobs and are unable to provide for their families, especially in todays economy. I don’t believe this is fair and is only hurting Americas economy more all because big companies care more about money than their workers. The article below explains this issue and also mentions how the president is “starting to get on board the anti-outsourcing bus.”

http://economyincrisis.org/content/outsourcing-india-does-not-create-american-jobs

The war on Darfur is another possible issue that I might wish to research. These genocides have been going on since 2003 and the US has decided to do next to nothing about it. This article expresses the little effort that the US has done. I think this is selfish to not try and lend a hand, they talk about helping and have plenty of petitions and meetings but not enough has actually been done. If an average American were to spend one hour in those villages, they would be complaining how they want to get out of there yet Darfurians have no choice and all they ask for is help to survive. The poorest conditions in America would be luxurious to the people of Darfur and yet Americans still want more.

http://www.cfr.org/sudan/darfur-crisis-continues/p10600

Illuminati

Gap year

Public vs. Private School

Prospecting for good research questions

The first potential topic I may write about is the Illuminati.  There are many conspiracy theories as to whether or not they actually exist.  A lot of evidence exists supporting their existence and there are clues on very well known items such as the dollar bill.  Right now I am reading a book called Angels and Demons that is all about the Illuminati and I have always been very interested in them.  The idea that a higher power controls everything we do is scary yet extremely interesting to think about.  The more I learn about it, the more convinced I become and writing a research paper and actually reading into the Illuminati would be very interesting. 

 

Should teens in the U.S. adopt the British custom of taking a “gap year” between high school and college?  This is another very interesting topic that I did not even knew existed until I stumbled upon it on the Internet.  There are many pros and cons to such an idea, such as being more mature when you finally enter college and wasting an entire year of your life when you could be ahead of the game.  British people seem to be a little more relaxed and under control as compared to Americans, so maybe by adopting this policy Americans will be able to travel and be stress free for a year of their life.  In that year teenagers can do a lot to help out society.

 

Private Schools vs. Public Schools/Same Sex Schools vs. Co-ed

There is a lot of conspiracy when it comes to whether or not a private school is actually better than a public school.  In my opinion, paying $10,000 a year for high school seems ridiculous.  After high school, college is another huge chunk of money that is mandatory to pay for. I also think that public schools offer a more well rounded system for its students as opposed to a private school.  I definitely think that co-ed is a lot better than an all girls school or all boys school and it helps you to meet a lot more people.

Window vs. Mirror Effect

This week we’ve covered a lot of advertising techniques. Every bit of the picture of an advertisement is like it is for a reason; the artists and designers put a lot of thought into every piece. Two strategies that we talked about briefly are the window and mirror effects. They are things you see everywhere but I never noticed what an effect they had on the viewer. Two very popular products that use these techniques are Proactiv and the workout video series p90x.

 

The majority of Proactiv commercials and advertisements go with the mirror effect. They portray a famous person, including Kelly Clarkson, Jessica Simpson, Brooke Shields, and Britney Spears. These faces are very easily recognized when seen, but every commercial start off saying how they are just like every other young person with acne. They are making themselves relatable to the viewer by sharing a common imperfection. The commercials don’t say that clearing your acne up will make you famous, so they put whomever that famed spokesperson is in the same position as viewers.

 

Inversely, p90X goes with a different approach, the window effect. Every person portrayed in these advertisements is in great shape, whether it be men with huge muscles or a thin, toned women. They all have the bodies that the majority of the population wants. It shows you what you could be if you use the product. It shows results and grabs the viewers’ attention. Making the buyers want the results displayed is what will get them to buy the actual product.

 

Both methods are very effective in selling a product. How the viewer sees the product depends on which method is chosen. The window effect sells the results, while the mirror effect sells by sharing traits with the viewers.

Learning Styles

In class, we were asked to write about which leaning style worked best for us. This is an important question because knowing how you learn helps to improve how you study and perform on tests. Some people tend to learn better just by listening, some by seeing, and some by experiencing hands on interaction. Each of these styles depend on our senses to understand all the information our brain takes in and most people tend to use one sense more than the others.

As someone who learns best by getting actively involved with whatever it may be that I am trying to learn, I know some studying skills that force me to physically interact with the information. An example of this would be in my functional anatomy lab. Before dissecting the cat, we are asked to fill out diagrams by labeling the muscles, which was pretty difficult for me because it consisted of reading the context in the book and trying to piece together which muscle was which. But when I was in the lab and could see and touch the muscles in front of me, it all started to click and made it a lot easier for me to remember since I could picture each muscle in my head.

For others, kinesthetic learning might not be best suited for them. The following article explains these three different learning techniques and how to determine which style you might be. Characteristics of each style as well as learning suggestions are addressed in hopes of helping others improve their study habits and ultimately receive higher grades in school. By reading this article I learned that by studying in short blocks, I will be able to enhance my learning and hopefully remember my material better.

http://homeworktips.about.com/od/homeworkhelp/a/learningstyle.htm

http://www.yout…

Writing Introductions

Today in class, we talked about an effective way to write introductions.  The four steps you need to include are common context, a central issue/question/debate, a thesis and a “so what?”.  It is interesting because when I have written essays in the past, my introductions were not so structured.  I pretty much went with the flow as my ideas came and had my last sentence be the thesis.

I think that the way we were told today to go about writing our introductions will definitely make them more effective.  By using this structure, our audience will better understand our goal of the essay.  Everything seems to be more clearly stated and less interpretation is needed rather than some type of hook that we were taught to used in high school.

The video I posted talked about seven tips to create a killer speech introduction.  they say its not your IQ, but your “I Will” which basically means it doesn’t matter how smart you are but your persistence and confidence are what will help you succeed.  The video is basically a boot camp to learn how to become more self-motivated and self-confident in all aspects of your life.  Although this doesn’t have to really do with anything we learned about in class, I still think it is a very effective video because it talks about ideas that will help you with anything you have to do in life.